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EOF05B The Eye of Faith, A History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative. Chapter 5 Part B, The Flowering of Wilburite Culture

• Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

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We trace how Ohio Wilburite Friends built a “guarded education,” from printed minutes and women’s records to a brick-by-brick boarding school culture that survived fire, standardized primary schools, and balanced conviction with modernization. A story of plain speech, strict standards, aid associations, and a networked push for quality.

• women’s minutes printed and epistles included alongside men’s
• boarding school built at Barnesville with local bricks and pride
• guarded culture of plain dress, thee and thou, strict discipline
• bans on baseball and careful curation of reading material
• high academics with limited salaries and leadership turnover
• aid associations and alumni organizing to raise funds and standards
• tuition increases and building upgrades amid cultural unease
• 1910 fire, rapid rebuilding, improved safety and infrastructure
• primary schools revived, subsidized, and gradually standardized
• custom readers published to align texts with Quaker testimonies
• education associations set courses, exams, and reporting norms
• cross-yearly meeting cooperation to supervise and improve schools


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SPEAKER_01:

Keep within and when they say look here look there is Christ Come on for Christ is within you and those who try to draw your minds away from the teaching inside you are opposed to Christ for the measures within and the light of God is within and the pearl is within you though hidden this podcast we continue to read from the Eye of Faith, a History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative by William P.

SPEAKER_00:

Tabor Jr. We'll be reading section B of chapter 5, The Flowering of the Wilburite Culture, 1874 to 1917. Although the minutes of Ohio Yearly Meeting had been printed since sometime in the 1820s, they reflected a new self-consciousness in 1884, when the back pages for the first time listed the times of all local worship and business meetings in the yearly meeting, and again about ten years later when the back page listed the times and places of the other yearly meetings with which we correspond. In 1886, women's minutes were first printed with the men's minutes. The same was done in the next year when a printer slip left the heading of the women's minutes reading extracts of the minutes of women friends. It is hard to know whether the exclamation point that was followed women's friends was a printer's error or a bit of subconscious editorial comment. Following that, there were no printed women's minutes for three years, but from 1891 they were regularly published with the men's minutes, and in 1892, the printed women's minutes began to include the epistles they had received from sister yearly meetings. The men did not print the epistles until 1910. Although the revival of interest in education did not begin quite so early as the revival of the Indian and book concerns, it is probably the most important aspect of the renewal of the activity during these years. In 1855, one year after the separation, a majority of friends' children had attended friends or other private schools, but during the dark years, following an increasing majority attended public schools. At about the time of the opening of the new boarding school at Barnesville, the number of children in Friends schools showed a sharp increase. So from 1877 until 1930, a majority, often a large majority, attended friend schools. This is not the place for an extended history of the boarding school, but the school does deserve some attention as perhaps the most important single focus of Ohio Yearly Meeting's energies and concerns from 1874 to the present time. Constructed at a cost of about$44,000, the school was entirely paid for by 1882. Built somewhat like the school at Mount Pleasant, it must have been an object of reassurance and pride to the plain friends of this period. It was well built. The Barnesville Enterprise spoke of it as having the finest and neatest brickwork to be found in the area. The bricks of the outer course had been selected and checked three times before being used. Perhaps, symbolic of the self-sufficient and self-contained character of the school to be, all the bricks were made from clay dug and fired on the grounds. At an early meeting of the new school's literary society, its future character was envisioned by the poem Only Green, composed for the occasion by Lois Tabor, a minister and member of the school committee. His vision, inspired by the only hymns of the quiet and retiring poem Cowper, saw the school as an only green, a place of quiet and inspiration. Building upon his memories of Mount Pleasant, he foresaw how the school would also be a Uri place. Uri was the name of Barclay's estate, extending warm hospitality to all who came, especially at yearly meeting time, because the students of that early literary society adopted the name Only Literary Society. The name only has struck with the school ever since. From the first, the school was expected to be a guarded institution in the spirit of the observation made by Joseph Edgerton back in 1842. Under the care of a superintendent and matron, usually man and wife, trusted as consistent friends, and a few young teachers, the school was operated as a large, plain family under strict discipline. The school was under the supervision of a large boarding school committee of plain men and women who often concerned themselves with homely details. Others might regard such concerns as minor or trivial. They considered them matters of great importance, just as no friend who did not dress plainly could be accepted as clerk, minister, or elder, or any other officer during these years, superintendents, teachers, and students were required to dress plainly. Frequent comments about plainness in the annual report indicate that there were pressures for relaxation of the clothing rules must have been present all along. In 1888, an exercise in Trevail prevailed in the committee on account of the tendency to deviations from some of the rules and regulations of the school. After a full and free interchange of sentiment, it was concluded to recommend to friends generally, and especially the members of this committee in the different neighborhoods to exercise a vigilant care in a tender, persuasive manner, and having parents encouraged to equip their children with plain style clothing before leaving home, consistent with our religious profession. End of quote. Again, in 1900, when the school was being made modern and up to date in its technical aspects, it reports the committee had been dipped into exercise and an earnest desire that the school might be carried on more nearly in accordance with the views of its early founders, that parents and teachers might cooperate with the committee in endeavoring to influence the children to a more strict adherence in regards to our testimonies and in regards to dress and address, and with a concern that the teachers might be employed who are good examples therein, being convinced by the power of truth of the necessity of adherence to all our principles and testimonies, of the propriety of a simplicity and dress, and of the use of scripture language of thee and thou. Other examples of the committee's concerns for details can be found in their attention to sports and reading. A yearly meeting of eighteen eighty four states Our attention was called to the practice of playing baseball at the school, and the conclusion of the committee to prohibit it was fully approved, believing it to be a hurtful tendency chiefly because of its association with gambling and other vices as practiced throughout the land. Committee members even went so far as to cross out and correct words in books which they inspected for the school library. Charles Palmer, for instance, has reported a friend's concerning correcting the expression I was completely at sea to read I was confused. L. J. Tabor, who attended the school just before 1900, complained that the pages dealing with the physics of music in his physics book had been glued together. He steamed them open, read them, then glued them back together. The school had a high academic standard and many fine teachers, though most teachers moved on after a short tenure either to better paying positions or to homes of their own. One, Charles Moreland, believed he should stay, but the committee was not willing. This was in 1900, for a merry teacher to have a home on the campus. Some prominent leaders, like John W. Smith, who was superintendent of both Mount Pleasant and Barnesville, was quite interested in the science of the day and was willing to use outside sources of education. For example, Smith was instrumental in bringing to the school John Bushier of Pittsburgh to explain the construction of his great telescopic lens. Because of low salaries and efficient management, the school ran no deficit for many years before the turn of the century. Sometime before 1888, the Boarding School Aid Association, one of the many associations which was part of Ohio Wilburite culture of this era, was formally to provide aid to needy students. By 1891, it had raised over$3,000, built up an endowment, and aided 67 students. The committee reported in 1892 that its liberal appropriations contributed materially to the size of the school. Apparently, many friends, especially the young and more active middle-aged ones, were able to aid the school to move forward through this association and the Olni Alumni Association, which was formed in 1895 or 1896. A few years after the formation of the Olly Alumni Association, its executive committee began in 1905 to publish The Only Current, which was usually appeared quarterly ever since. Through this little publication, concerned alumni was able to awaken a new interest in the school and to provide a means of exerting pressure for improving it. Nearly every issue of the early days contained articles about the needs for educated Quakers and the need for more students to attend and graduate, and about the desirability of raising tuition. The only current was a sign of new life after 1890 and was itself an important channel through which the new life and leadership could appear. Such pressures as these and the realities of the changing times were reflected in the Boarding Schools Committee report in 1905, which spoke of the need to increase the salaries for a more permanent staff and to increase tuition. The report noted that more sacrifice may be required to maintain the school in the future than had been in the past, and asked for$1,000 to cancel recent debts. An equal amount was asked for the next year when the committee announced that it secured the services of an experienced principal teacher for a term of years. Tuition was raised from$350 per week, from$3 a week to$350 per week. And much work was done in repairing and repainting the inside of the building. In general, the years from 1900 to 1910 witnessed great interest in the school and its improvement, especially by younger friends who had to prevail against the older friends' lingering uneasiness about too much education, for the Wilbright man mind remembered what had happened to the brilliant Elisha Bates and Joseph John Gurney. Careful study would probably show that the Gurneyite wing of Ohio Yearly Meeting before 1854 had a much stronger interest in advanced education than the Wilburite wing. See for page 102, for example, to the deeply practiced rural Ohio Wilburite, advanced education seemed like a dangerous frill. Moreover, those young people who went off to West Town or to a college seldom came back as plain friends, if they came back at all. Skepticism, it seemed, was justified. Still, from 1890 to 1910, a trickle of young people did go to college. In 1910, under the superintendency of James Walton, who was already on the boarding school committee in 1890 when he was made clerk for the day, and who finally asked to be released from the committee in 1942 or 1943. The steady progress of the school was threatened by a fire, which completely gutted the old brick building. However, the plans for rebuilding were made before the ashes were cold. As in 1874, the yearly meeting rallied to raise funds, and once again Philadelphia friends contributed heavily. The school was rebuilt inside the old wall, one story lower, on the original foundation, that our youth may receive a guarded education. The great effort was probably helpful to the yearly meeting in 1910 as it had been in 1874. The committee reported of 1910 expressed hope that through the renewed interest of old and young we may be united in a deeper bond of worship and fellowship. Two dormitories were built on opposite sides of the only green. A separate heating plant was built, fireproofing and fire escapes were installed, and the town water main was brought out to the school. Thus, forced to act by the fire, Ohio friends were ready with an improved, though still guarded educational plant for the great crisis of the 20th century. Interest in primary education had begun to revive among the Ohio friends at about the time of the new boarding school at Barnesville. In 1875, the new school was built. Of 881 children of the yearly meeting, only 242 attended Friends Schools exclusively. Yearly meeting that year encouraged Friends to be diligent in their endeavors to harmonize in the more general support of Friends School. In 1876, a committee which included two friends from each monthly meeting was appointed to cooperate with the school committee and to distribute funds. They were granted$200 from 1875 to 1877. The number of Friends schools had jumped from 14 to 18, and 401 of the 843 children attended only Friends Schools, only 296 attended public schools exclusively. The annual subsidy for the primary school committee to distribute became a part of the yearly meetings tradition from that time on. In 1878, the committee reportedly distributed$200 from the meeting and a$50 gift, stating that the otherwise one school could not have been held, and several students would have been unable to attend. During the 1880s, the men's appropriation was often$300, and the woman sometimes added another$50. In 1880, and again in 1887, the number of friends' schools, including an occasional proprietary school or a family school, reached 25. The standards, however, were far from uniform. Some school terms were as short as three weeks, others as long as eight and one and a half months. Apparently, some people sent their children to short terms at the Friends School and then sent them to the free public schools. As late as 1900, family schools were also reported. Throughout the Golden Age, about 40% of friends' family felt satisfied for their children to attend the free public schools. These were sometimes admittedly better than some of the friends' schools. Elmer Hall of Barnesville, 1879 to 1966, remembered that some friends around Barnesville, and probably in other areas, felt comfortable to let their children attend the free country schools near them if the teacher were a friend, as was often the case in a friend's community. Accompanying the new interest in education was a concern for suitable school books, first discussed in yearly meeting in 1879. In the 1880s a committee reported that primers and beginning readers were comparatively free from ejection, but in most all such work series, the advanced readers are more at variance with our testimony against war, music, plural language, etc. And we have met with none to fully recommend. The committee had considered publication of a book and had even started a primer, but the expense in the labor appeared to be too great. The report concluded with some typical comments regarding the Wilbright supervision of primary schools. Most of our teachers are young and inexperienced and need the cooperation of school committees, who are in fault if they do not give due attention to the reading books used and see the objection, see that the objectional material is erased or omitted, or such explanation given as will show to the children that these things are not in accordance with our views as a society. In 1885, a new committee was appointed to proceed as they may be enabled to be in procuring a suitable class of school books for friend schools, particularly for the primary. They were empowered by the yearly meeting in 1886 to have a text printed at a cost of as much as$4,000, but a way did not open for action until 1889, when the committee reported that a friend from Philadelphia had offered to pay a Quaker educator to prepare a manuscript for two readers and that the entire project might cost Ohio Yearly Meeting$1,000. The yearly meeting guaranteed$500, and a Friends Publishing Association formed for the purpose was to raise the rest. The Quaker educator was apparently Charles E. Gauss, a former teacher of the boarding school, who, according to one report, felt the committee had censured his work almost unmercifully. The two books were published in 1890 by Friends Publishing Association, Barnesville, Ohio. They were titled The Choice Selections Designed as a Reading Book for Advanced Classes in the Schools of Friends and Others, and Choice Selections Designed as Reading Book for Intermediate Classes in the School of Friends and Others. The preface to each book states that the compilers had put every selection to a threefold test: literary quality, high moral standard, and freedom from sentiments or language contrary to the view of friends. In 1903, an education association was recognized under a new constitution and began to exert reforming influence on the primary schools just as the only alumni association was beginning to affect the boarding school. The only current gave enthusiastic reports of the Education Association's meetings. For example, it reported an afternoon meeting on December 26, 1906, at the boarding school and commented that since 1903, all Friend schools in the yearly meeting had followed the same course of study from the same textbooks, which had been purchased by the association and which was rented or sold to students. In addition, students now had to pass written examinations before the teachers would recommend them for boarding school entrance, and students who had studied boarding school level courses either in the primary school or at home had to pass an entrance examination on the subject at the boarding school. Although the association had no official authority over the schools, the primary school teachers were expected to read a report on their year's work at the fall meeting of the association, held on an evening of yearly meeting week. According to the 1906 report, the association meetings were attended by teachers, primary school committee members, parents, and interested friends. In 1910, the association appointed a committee to study the schools and see how they might be improved. And the first issue of the only current for that year was largely devoted to articles on improving primary schools. In 1910, the yearly meeting gave$300 to the primary school committee, even though the committee had asked only for$200, and even though everyone was contributing heavily for the boarding school rebuilding. In 1911, the committee reported that it had aided the primary school teachers to start a circular letter among themselves. It also strongly urged the yearly meeting committee on primary schools to appoint a supervisor for all of the schools in order to develop a really uniform course of study. The next issue, the only current, initiated a new feature, primary school notes, which was continued for over 20 years. By 1912, the Education Association kept a record of tardiness, absence, and the number of visitors in the various schools, and its meetings were sometimes attended by teachers in other yearly meetings. At the education meeting on December 27, 1913, teachers were present from Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Tunessa, and Westtown to hear Anna Walton's report on her visit to all the schools in Ohio yearly meeting. Her judgment was respected as a result of her work in Philadelphia area friends schools, and to hear the expression of continued interest in having a yearly meeting superintendent to make all of the schools uniform. That year also saw the formation of Salem Quarterly Meeting Education Association, known as Educational Association, had already been meeting for about a year with an attendance of about 80. A committee of the Salem Quarterly Meeting Education Association asked Charles Moreland to visit all of their schools, which he did. In his report, printed in OnlyCurrent, he told of visiting each school once and of meeting with all of the teachers twice. Each school had been provided with a record book to record facts about each term's work, progress, text used, progress made, pupils' grades, and how calculated, daily schedule, and so on. An innovation in the same only current was West Town Notes. Ten only students were at West Town that year, and Scattergood Notes. At Scattergrood, the school had been lengthened and the course of study changed to some extent and submitted for the approval of the principal of Barnesville Boarding School. In 1915, the Only Current reported that Iowa Yearly Meeting and Hickory Grove Quarterly Meeting, Hickory Grove Quarter was still part of Ohio Yearly Meeting, are cooperating for the improvement of their schools, and Anson B. Harvey had been employed as superintendent, concludes the reading of Section B of Chapter 5, The Flowering of the Wilburite Culture 1874 through 1917, from the Eye of Faith, A History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative by William P. Tabor Jr. We will finish reading this chapter in the next podcast. The words from our introduction were written by George Fox in 1652. The music was composed and sung by Paulette Meyer. More information at our website www.paulettemeyer.com.

SPEAKER_01:

Keep within and when they say look here or look there is Christ. Go not fast for Christ is within you and those who try to draw your minds away from the teaching inside you are opposed to Christ for the measures within, and the light of God is within, and the pearl is within you, so hidden.